There is a bit of the modern neo-aristocratic snob in that tone, the idea that the bourgeois need to Know Their Place and not try to emulate their Betters. Go back to your tiny house hovel, peasant! and live the way WE the Enlightened think is best for you!
Do the Obamas, Clintons, and others of the same exalted classes get a pass from the same people about their extra vulgar large houses? Or is it different for them, because they used the Right People to make bespoke customs buildings?
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
Which is weird because its not like the author is rich or anything.Originally Posted by Joe in PNG
Not being rich does not preclude one from becoming a snob, and may even exacerbate that tendency.
A lot of the people penning snooty and pretentious articles for Salon, Huff Po, Slate, and similar are themselves fairly low on the income scale.
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
@Totem Polar made the point in another thread that artists are dangerous because they mingle among all social strata.
@Joe in PNG is right that a lot of the folks pushing ideas like this are aspirational themselves.
These kinds of arguments are historically made by critics and proponents of any design genre that has aspirations of social or political improvement.
See the leading lights of the English and American Arts & Crafts Movement, architecture of the same period, I could go on.
There is always some sort of drive toward purity or honesty over artifice, which usually gets turned into something precious and exclusive to the richer sorts after the designers or architects go broke trying to broaden the common man.
( chief examples being Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright. Both started out small-s socialists, and both saw the light after repeatedly going broke.)
The richer sorts then encourage the exclusivity of the design as a Veblen Good.
The big problem in something like a McMansion is that they really do run the gamut quality-wise and a lot of them are as poorly built as they are ungainly in design.
Some of the examples of good work shown on the McMansion web site are truly *really good* modern houses, as the site owner notes; and they are undoubtedly quite expensive.
Last edited by Lex Luthier; 08-28-2021 at 05:54 PM.
"If I ever needed to hunt in a tuxedo, then this would be the rifle I'd take." - okie john
"Not being able to govern events, I govern myself." - Michel De Montaigne
Some of the snobs I've ever known were trailer trash.
We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......
Everything being built around here is multistory in new developments. Biggest bang for your buck if you're a builder is a 2000 sq ft 3 BR 2 story house on a 10,000 sf lot. This isn't a new concept. A city just north of us was building 2 story houses on 5000 SF lots over 100 years ago.
The builders are building for young families who can get a 3% loan when they forget about boomers with cash who want single story houses. I guess they figure the nursing homes will always be there for those with crutches and walkers.
The last 2 houses being built in a new subdivision we looked at are single story. The reason. Code said to get approved by the city 10% of the new construction had to be single story. Otherwise it would have been 100% 2 story.
Last edited by Borderland; 08-28-2021 at 09:34 PM.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
One thing I'll never have in another house is stairs.. it's a big giant ass ranch or nothing at all. Not to mention the actual construction of the house is so much easier.
One thing I'll never have in another house is stairs.. it's a big giant ass ranch or nothing at all. Not to mention the actual construction of the house is so much easier.
Yep. Lose power in a 50+ year old house and it really is not a big deal. Lose power in a modern house and it'll quickly turn into an oven despite it being "low E." Local fire codes have all but eliminated some of the old features (like big overhangs), but there still is no good reason you can't orient a house for the sun.
One of the things I do like about McMansions here is that many are now designed with multi-generational living in mind. With aging parents, that is an even bigger plus given the dangers living in a congregate setting during a prolonged pandemic.
Last edited by 0ddl0t; 08-29-2021 at 06:41 AM.
That's why I left a job "inside the beltway" in 2010 and never looked back. Now I wouldn't consider a job that far "in". Luckily my work (current job and general industry) is WFH-friendly. Once my youngest is out of HS, we're going to start looking for a place away from NoVA. All the benefits of this area that appealed to 23yo me no longer apply. 48yo me is ready for a quiet locale with more open space.
Yup. I live in a 3 story townhouse, so all I do is run up and down stairs. It's no problem for me now (more of an issue for my wife and her bad knee), but I wonder what it'll be like in 20 years. I've already told my wife whatever house we move to next, likely the one we live in the rest of our lives, will either be on one floor or have a layout that doesn't require us to regularly use the stairs (ie everything we need is on the groundfloor).
I really wish I could have convinced my wife that we should buy my grandmother's house in rural NC from the estate after she passed away in 2016. It was a little brick cottage with 2br, 1 bath, and a carport sitting on 1.5 acres. It would have been an ideal retirement property, but she wasn't having it. It was "too small". Shame really, that house had good bones and a lot of potential. I could have just about paid cash for it.
Chris
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